Having taken a hammering following Mexico’s election results and the Brazilian president's comments on fiscal consolidation, the prospects for the key Latin American currencies over the remainder of 2024 are unclear.

Proponents of banking-as-a-service will be hoping that UniCredit’s decision to acquire Aion Bank and Vodeno marks a turning point in a sector that has experienced considerable volatility.

Investing in Latin America’s payment fintechs is having a moment – but will the region’s central banks kill off their revenue model by adopting their own version of Brazil’s PIX?

New institutional investors are providing liquidity to longstanding Revolut employees and giving a valuation proof point to its stunning revenue and profit growth.

Its acquisition of Citi’s retail banking business in the Philippines has proven to be a challenge. It has put pressure on the bank’s capital buffers, while Citi’s high-end customers have shown a preference for international players.

Transaction banks in Asia will have to up their game to satisfy corporates who now view a strong digital offering as a prerequisite to maintaining relationships.

National champion banks should worry that the latest surveys commissioned by the Competition and Markets Authority might prompt loss of more primary accounts.

Falling inflation has sparked an early surge in credit demand, which offers the prospect of banking normalization – a potential boon given the negative real interest rates banks are earning on their government securities portfolios.

Guidelines published by China’s cabinet pledged to boost the quality of its capital markets. But they neither understand nor trust the vibrant-yet-turbulent nature of that financial system.

BDO Unibank has worked on sustainable finance in the Philippines since 2010.

BDO Unibank, the Philippines’ largest bank, turned in an exceptional financial performance in 2023, cementing its position as the country’s best bank.

New transition bond includes step-down, as new ‘green infrastructure’ bond issued.

Bank of Cyprus’s decision to shift its listing back to Athens also shows how far Greece has recovered.

The bank's new CEO has posted his first market-beating quarterly results, but the firm's exposure to lower-income segments could limit longer-term upside.

A report from Citi asks if Mexican banks must increase interest rates on their deposit base.

Huge international debt capital market issuance in September and October is forecast as investors may seek to take any US Treasury benefit through wider spreads.

A perfect storm – triggered by the Sahm Rule, AI-driven transactions and the unwinding of the yen carry trade – sent the Japanese and global stock markets on a wild ride. While the Bank of Japan gains more flexibility to raise rates after the unwinding, investors remain optimistic about the long-term prospects of Japanese equities.

India’s first international financial services centre was created by premier Narendra Modi in 2008. Today, Gift City is a flourishing hub near Ahmedabad in the country’s arid northwest. K Rajaraman, chair of the International Financial Services Centres Authority, tells Euromoney why the zone is vital to India’s financial and economic aspirations.

When Piyush Gupta was named chief executive of DBS in 2009, the Singapore lender was going nowhere in particular. He gave it drive and direction, buying assets around Asia and transforming it into the world’s best bank. A series of tech outages put him in the spotlight for the wrong reasons, but Gupta will leave DBS in March with his head held high and his legacy intact. His capable and charismatic successor Tan Su Shan, the first woman to run southeast Asia’s largest bank, has big shoes to fill.

Senior Indonesian officials have floated the idea of transforming the island paradise into a private-wealth hub to rival Hong Kong and Singapore. Jakarta certainly needs to do something to ensure that more of the wealth created onshore stays onshore.

New highways, bridges and tunnels make travelling in Mumbai easier than it has been in decades. A new metro line is set to open in late 2024, but the city can still be gruelling to navigate. If it wants to be a global financial hub, there is still so much more to do.

As multinationals navigate the complexities of developing Asian businesses – amid supply-chain reconfigurations, the rise of sustainable financing and the penetration of e-commerce – treasurers are playing a bigger role in strategic decision-making.

Buying Axa IM would be BNP Paribas chief executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafé’s biggest acquisition. It has been a long time in the making.

Alongside UniCredit’s recent acquisition of Polish financial technology company Vodeno, the US private equity takeover of VeloBank is another sign of renewed optimism in Poland.

The spike in bitcoin after the shooting at a Donald Trump election rally was a reminder that for all the claims of increased maturity, the world’s largest cryptocurrency remains unpredictable.

Revolut is strongly profitable while growing fast, diversifying revenues and finally being admitted to the banking club. Watch out.

The role of Mediobanca adds to the similarities between BBVA’s hostile bid for Banco Sabadell and Intesa Sanpaolo’s takeover of UBI Banca in 2020. But there are stark differences of institutional character, politics and timing.

Wholesale banking head Andrew Bester explains the renowned retail bank’s ambition to win new revenues building on its expertise in sustainable finance.

Despite Asia boasting the world’s highest mobile payment penetration rate, digital banks in the region have failed to meet expectations. Traditional banks in many Asian markets no longer view them as serious competitors. What explains this underwhelming performance and are there any exceptions?

Political instability in France, coupled with better EU-UK relations, could threaten Paris’ ability to rival London as a financial centre. But a focus on institutional clients among French and other EU banks is already helping London’s resilience – a trend that shows little sign of abating.

India’s wealth-management sector is growing fast, with new advisory firms constantly springing up. This is catnip to private equity firms keen to invest in the best growth-oriented private banks. But who will win this race and who will fall short?

UK pension schemes have made clear their opposition to reduced investors protections, while the FCA may come to regret pushing through its new listing regime.

Citi saw impressive growth over 2023 with revenue growth of 16% year on year.

OCBC wins the award as Singapore's best digital bank this year for enhancing its digital banking service through a series of initiatives designed to deepen engagement and improve the user experience across its platforms.

Hana Bank accounted for 13% of system loans and 15% of system deposits in South Korea by the end of 2023. The bank enjoys a strong domestic franchise, particularly in corporate banking, which has driven a sustained improvement in profitability despite the challenging economic backdrop.

Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) – established in 2021 following the merger of Bank BRI Syariah, Bank Syariah Mandiri and Bank BNI Syariah – is a leader in Indonesia’s shariah banking system. It had reached 19 million customers by May 2023, and is Indonesia's sixth-largest bank.

For its range of initiatives and substantial investment in supporting social and environmental issues in the special administrative region, Bank of China (Hong Kong) wins the award this year.

Citi secures the award for Korea’s best investment bank in recognition of its comprehensive range of activity across M&A advisory, debt capital markets and equity capital markets.

In 2023, Citi saw operating revenues reach around ¥139 billion ($860 million) and total assets climb to ¥6,097 billion.

Citi saw impressive growth across its corporate banking services in Hong Kong in 2023. It saw year-on-year growth in its loan portfolio and funded several significant environmental, social and governance (ESG) financing transactions.

Banks are refining their single-dealer platforms to replicate the price comparison benefits of the multi-dealer model while accentuating the former’s unique features.

Cathay United Bank improved its digital customer service last year and employed artificial intelligence and big data tools to better understand its customers’ credit metrics. This resulted in record digital growth for the bank, with digital user penetration up by nearly 50% over 2022.

RCBC launched its new RCBC Pulz digital banking app in 2023 and continued to support for digital inclusion.

RCBC expanded its digital offering for small and medium-sized enterprises and saw impressive growth in the segment in 2023. The SME loans portfolio grew by 16.6% to P125.3 billion ($2.15 billion) over the year.

Newly onboarded corporate customers at HSBC grew by 21% last year. It introduced Smartserve, which reduces the number of days required to open an account, and Omni Collect, which simplifies the way businesses collect payments.

In 2023, HSBC saw its market share of foreign investment into Malaysia reach 30% of total assets under management, making it the leading custodian and clearing bank for foreign institutional investors investing in country’s capital markets. HSBCnet Get Rate, which provides its Malaysian customers with automatic preferential FX rates, was upgraded to allow 24/7 FX booking for companies with EU and US headquarters.

HSBC grew profit before tax by 188% in 2023 to SLR38.2 billion ($126 million).

HSBC had a good year in India in 2023, with profits up by 19% to $1.51 billion, from $1.27 billion the previous year.

HSBC achieved robust growth in 2023 with net profit growing 26% to total $566 million, with growth coming from its commercial, wealth and personal banking businesses.

Throughout 2023, HSBC expanded its presence in the mainland Chinese market, strengthening its operations and advancing strategic initiatives across many sectors.

HSBC introduced initiatives to tackle parental leave, diversity in its hiring process and to improve support for its transgender employees in Hong Kong last year.

In 2023, HSBC further solidified its position as Hong Kong’s best bank under the leadership of Luanne Lim, HSBC Hong Kong’s chief executive. HSBC Group’s market profit before tax soared to $10.7 billion, representing 80% year-on-year growth and contributing 35.3% to the group’s overall pre-tax profit.

HSBC helped Singaporean companies like Next Gen Foods and Multiplier Technologies expand overseas in 2023. It also scaled up its support for local businesses expansion in the region by introducing a $1 billion ASEAN (Association of southeast Asian Nations) growth fund for digital platform businesses and a $150 million venture debt offering aimed at scaling high growth companies.

OCBC had a busy 2023, launching new FX features, application programming interface (API) integration and improvements to its online platform.

OCBC NISP proved an invaluable partner to its small and medium-sized enterprise clients in Indonesia throughout 2023 with the launch of its Nyala Bisnis 2.0 platform and initiatives to empower women-owned SMEs.

Banco Santander CIB’s steady progress in Brazil – by far Latin America’s biggest market for financing – coincided with a greater emphasis on local markets financing in 2023. The bank’s sweet spot, straddling local and international debt capital markets, as well as loan financing, meant that it had a very strong year across various debt segments. According to Dealogic, Santander CIB – which is led in the region by Rafael Noya, global head of global debt financing – was the leading underwriter of domestic DCM throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, helped by a second place in Brazil, where it took a 9% share of local issuance. Santander’s local strength was also supported by a strong showing in international DCM.

Mauritius Commercial Bank (MCB) had another good year in 2023 and is again the best bank in the country for the review period.

The definition of excellence in these Euromoney awards is multifaceted. Sometimes the best bank is the one that has innovated and changed the market, sometimes the momentum in the market deserves recognition and at other times the player that dominates in terms of scale and profitability is the winner. It’s not often all three, but in Brazil, Nubank has revolutionized the retail banking market while enjoying unprecedented growth that has begun to feed – thanks to its highly efficient operating model – into operational leverage that is driving market-leading profitability.

In a difficult economic landscape, Eastern Bank has once again proven its mettle, delivering impressive growth and financial performance in 2023. The bank’s net profit surged by 19.6%, while its assets rose by 11.5%. This is particularly noteworthy considering the high base set in 2022. Return on equity improved to 16.3% from 15.5% in 2022.

With economic growth softening in Trinidad and Tobago – this year GDP is expected to come in at 2.2% compared to 2.5% in 2023 – Scotiabank continues to outperform other banks in the local market. Led by country manager Gayle Pazos, Scotiabank’s focus on digital transformation saw improvements in its platform relating to accessibility upgrades and security enhancements. The significant investment from the bank in this area over the past three years is helping to deliver efficiency and, in turn, stronger financial results.

The M&A advisory rankings for 2023 tell a familiar story in western Europe. JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs rank top both by revenue and by deal value. But Rothschild & Co advised on almost twice as many transactions as either of the bulge bracket pair and it maintained its third place in the revenue league table ahead even of Morgan Stanley.

The strategic case for banks to remain in central and eastern Europe remains intact: that is the official line from Scope Ratings at least. The agency found that faster growth and higher interest rates in CEE have, overall, boosted the profitability of western European banks present in the region.

If there was ever a time that demonstrated JPMorgan’s credentials as the country’s best bank, it was the crisis in March and April 2023 when US regional banks suddenly faced a balance sheet reckoning triggered by the rapid change in interest rates.

Panama had a solid 2023, with economic growth of 5%, but that belies the significant challenges that the country’s new president, José Raúl Mulino, will face. The closure of the country’s copper mine will add to the fiscal pressures that the increasing deficits from the country’s social pension system are creating. A drought has also affected the Panama Canal, a major revenue source for the government, and the economic outlook will likely get tougher from here.

Global IME Bank’s merger with the Bank of Kathmandu last year proved to be a game changer, catapulting the combined entity to the top of Nepal’s banking sector. This merger is considered an effective step in consolidating the country’s financial resources and in recognition of this, it receives the awards for Nepal’s best bank.

Nothing shows BBVA’s ability to harness what was once viewed as a disparate set of national banks around Latin America into a cohesive, integrated banking institution better than the success of its transaction services business.

Transaction banking clients faced many challenges in 2023, mostly as a result of the rapidly shifting interest rate environment. That made it vital to have a banking partner that could supply reliable advice on liquidity management.

BDO Unibank, the Philippines’ largest bank, turned in an exceptional financial performance in 2023, cementing its position as the country’s best bank.

Once again, Morgan Stanley is Asia’s best bank for advisory. The investment bank was the undisputed leader in region-wide advisory during the awards period, notching $172 billion in completed and $117 billion in announced transactions.

Slightly later than expected, early 2023 saw the legal completion of OTP’s takeover of Nova KBM, Slovenia’s second-biggest bank, first announced in mid 2021. OTP announced in mid April 2024 that it planned to merge Nova KBM with SKB banka – which it bought from Societe Generale in 2019 – in the second half of 2024, subject to regulatory approvals. OTP said the merged entity’s brand will be OTP banka and it will be the country’s biggest bank, overtaking national champion NLB.

Singapore’s big lenders tend to dominate banking for small and medium-sized enterprises in Asia, and this year is no exception, with UOB beating its domestic rivals to this award.

Cross-border transactions involving multiple products that combine advisory, equity and debt financing are the bread and butter of a franchise like RBC Capital Markets. The firm’s performance in 2023 makes it a worthy winner of the award for Canada’s best investment bank.

Croatia’s entry into the euro in January 2023 was a landmark event for the country’s banking sector, which is dominated by banks from elsewhere in the European Union.

CTBC Bank has cemented its position in Taiwan’s best bank over the past year. Driven by its dual track digital innovation and environmental, social and governance (ESG) based transformation, the bank achieved a record net profit of NT$41.3 billion ($1.3 billion) in 2023, with a cost-to-income ratio of 55.16% and a return on equity of 11.9%, the highest among its peers. Revenue and pre-tax profit grew by 16% and 12%, respectively.

Nearly all banks today make claims to be helping to save the planet in one way or another. One that has consistently done more than most when it comes to shifting the balance within the financial services industry is Bank of America, and it wins the award for North America’s best bank for sustainable finance.

Nerves were jangling hard in Europe last year, when the panic that had seen many tens of billions of dollars’ worth of deposits flee large US regional banks in a matter of hours suddenly began emerging in Europe.

In recognition of multiple market-leading developments in its banking business and an impressive financial performance last year, maib is Moldova’s best bank.

BBVA achieved impressive momentum in Latin America during 2023, winning individual best bank awards in Colombia and Mexico, and coming close in Peru. Its bank in Argentina also posted respectable growth and is poised to take advantage of a potentially more benign economic outlook. The Spanish firm also capitalized on its market leading position in Mexico to win the award for the country’s best investment bank and is also Latin America’s best bank for transaction services – a landmark win in an sector that has traditionally been dominated by US banks.

Western Europe is the most competitive region in the world for investment banking. The big five US firms, with the ambition and capability to claim global leadership, all lead transactions for the continent’s biggest companies as well as for US and Asian multinationals acquiring and raising capital in Europe.

Bank Mandiri, Indonesia’s largest bank by assets, achieved a record net profit of $3.6 billion in 2023, an impressive 34% year on year rise – the highest in the industry and significantly outpacing the other four tier-one banks. Led by president director Darmawan Junaidi, it retains the award for Indonesia’s best bank.

For its mix of sustainable finance structuring expertise and innovation in retail banking, ING wins the award this year.

Access Bank made profit before tax of N569 billion ($380 million) in 2023, a big improvement on the previous year's N163 billion. This was in part due to the devaluation of the naira in 2023, but was also driven by the bank’s aggressive expansion strategy, which has seen its footprint in Africa expand and the establishment of its first branch in France.

In 2023, central and eastern Europe’s M&A markets held up relatively well, with a total deal value of more than $30 billion according to Dealogic. Lazard, CEE’s best bank for advisory, was involved in many of the most important advisory situations in the region.

After being knocked back by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kazakhstan’s economy rebounded last year, notching up over 5% growth on strong levels of consumer and public spending.

Stanbic Bank Uganda (SBU) turned in a strong performance over the review period. Net profit was USh421 billion ($110 million), up 18% from USh357 billion in 2022. Net loans increased to USh4 trillion, while deposits ended the year at USh6 trillion, both up 3% on 2022.

Belgium-based KBC’s Bulgarian unit formally merged with former Raiffeisen International Bank subsidiary United Bulgarian Bank (UBB) in 2023, creating the country’s biggest bank. KBC had completed the legal acquisition of RBI’s operations in Bulgaria in 2022. Most of the synergies of the merger were, therefore, far from being realised in 2023 as the operational integration was only just beginning.

Commerzbank has seen a remarkable bounce back in its profitability and share price over the past four years, something that was particularly apparent in 2023. The year began with its re-inclusion in the DAX in February, five years after it was ejected from the index of German blue-chip stocks. This was thanks to a dramatic recovery in its share price from the depths it hit during the early Covid-19 period.

HSBC was the standout candidate in this award this year, dominating transaction banking in Asia.

It was a mixed year in Austrian banking in 2023. Higher eurozone interest rates bolstered banks’ net interest margins, but at the end of the year the bankruptcy of Austrian real estate group Signa shone the spotlight on what Moody’s said was €2.2 billion of lending by Austrian banks to Signa.

For a global lender, Citi’s investment-banking presence in Africa is hard to compete with. The US firm has an onshore presence in 16 countries and covers 38 markets, with a dedicated team in Johannesburg supported by corporate bankers across the region.